A week ago, many of you started our 21-Day Meditation Challenge with my friend, spiritual wisdom teacher Deepak Chopra. With 14 days to go, I want to encourage you to stay with it. My first attempts years ago were start-and-stop, and I kept thinking, "I must be doing this wrong, 'cause my thoughts are speeding up rather than slowing down." "Let's meditate" felt like an invitation for my mind to go whirly-dirly. The chatter and thoughts were incessant; the more I tried to concentrate on a mantra or my breath, the louder and crazier the thoughts. Like CRAY-CRAY crazy (flying elephants and birds with toes, to name a few). That happened every time for about the first week. When I stopped fighting the thoughts -- let them be, come and go, didn't resist, and didn't TRY to do anything or have any expectation -- it gradually got easier.

I've since learned that the more stressed we are, the more forceful the chatter. It's like energy being released through the noise of your mind. Stay with it. With practice, like developing a muscle, your ability to BE STILL and BE ONE with the STILLNESS will come.

My life is better when I get still regularly. Call it meditation or call it quiet time -- doesn't matter. The benefits are the same. If you stay with the practice, it's like developing spiritual muscle. I promise you will become less stressed, more focused.